I have a different experience. For a while a cousin lived in Canberra an the later I'd go down to the Australia Day long weekend touch football where we would stay with one of our teams family (high up in the Defence Dept). The point being local knowledge presents a whole different side to Canberra, good pubs. clubs, eateries that aren't tourist traps and areas where the tourist don't know about. This is years ago now so I really don't remember the places. These days if I have to go it tends to be a flying visit.